In a surprise turn of events, the mayor of New York City will not now go on to run for president. Or maybe that should read: In a surprise turn of events, this time it wasn't the governor of New York caught in a career-ending scandal, but instead just the mayor of New York City.

That's the way I reacted to hearing the breaking news that New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on five federal charges, including bribery and wire fraud: "Wait... the mayor? Shouldn't that be the governor?!?" I apologize to Governor Kathy Hochul for this knee-jerk reaction, since (as of yet) she has not been implicated in any career-ending scandal. But it should be a forgivable reaction, after reviewing the recent history of both offices.

The last three previous mayors of The Big Apple have been (chronologically): Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill de Blasio. Giuliani ran for president in 2008, and both Bloomberg and de Blasio ran in 2020. None of them got very far in this endeavor (although to be fair, Giuliani did lead the Republican field in the polls for a while, early on), but they sure had a whole lot of fun pretending that the rest of the country was just aching for the leader of New York City to step in and lead the entire country. It now appears that Adams will break this losing streak (of overestimating the popularity of the country's biggest-city mayor beyond the borders of the five boroughs). Of course, in the age of Donald Trump, anything is possible, but it seems unlikely at this point that Adams would ever make such an attempt himself (even if he does somehow manage to beat the rap).

The last three governors of the Empire State, however, have all had to step back from politics due to the eruption of scandals on their watch. Two of them resigned, and one of them abruptly dropped out of his bid for a full term in office.

First, there was Eliot Spitzer, who was caught paying high-priced prostitutes tens of thousands of dollars for their services, both while he was the state's attorney general and then later, while he was governor. The day the story broke, in March of 2008, impeachment proceedings were threatened in the state assembly. Spitzer announced his resignation two days later.

This elevated David Paterson to the governor's office. Two years later, while Paterson was running for a full term in office, the story broke that he had tampered with a witness in a domestic-abuse case involving one of his staffers. Paterson also faced allegations (for which he was later fined over $60,000) that he had lied under oath during an investigation into him getting free Yankees World Series tickets. By the end of the month, Paterson announced he was dropping his campaign, but would continue in his job until the end of his term (which had originally been Spitzer's term).

New York's next governor was Andrew Cuomo, who lasted in office more than ten years -- far better than Spitzer or Paterson had managed. However, eventually (late in 2020 and early in 2021) things caught up with him, as he was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment that included unwanted touching and kissing (and him goading a woman to play a game of strip poker on an airplane, for good measure). Cuomo tried to brush it all off:

[S]ome of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation.... At work sometimes I think am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I mean no offense and only attempt to add some levity and banter to what is a very serious business.

This was after only two women had accused Cuomo of sexual harassment. Within the next few weeks, four more women came forward with their own accusations. The state assembly approved an impeachment investigation at this point. But Cuomo continued to cling to power, hoping he could just tough it all out.

At the beginning of August, the state attorney general released a report that concluded that while he was in office Cuomo had sexually harassed at least eleven women. Cuomo continued to deny the worst accusations, stating: "I never touched anyone inappropriately." But a week later, he bowed to the inevitable and announced he would resign the office. This is how the current governor entered office, as Kathy Hochul was Cuomo's lieutenant governor at the time.

As I said, when you review all of that you can understand why I had the initial reactions that I did upon hearing the news of Adams being federally indicted. After all, it's usually the governors who get caught in New York scandals, not the mayors.

And perhaps (again, in the age of Donald Trump) I was premature in calling all the gubernatorial scandals "career-ending." Andrew Cuomo is still mightily annoyed that he was ousted from office and has been hinting at re-entering politics again at some point in the future -- even (in a rather ironic twist) perhaps running for mayor of New York City himself. Which would certainly be interesting to see play out, at least as an outside spectator.

As for the current mayor, his goose does seem to be pretty thoroughly cooked at this point. Not only has he now been indicted on federal bribery charges, but you really need a scorecard to keep track of all the scandals swirling around all the members of his administration (there are at least four separate investigations underway dealing with various different crimes, and multiple high-ranking members of the Adams administration have already been forced to resign, retire, or have even pled guilty or offered to testify against others).

Now, New York is not alone when it comes to corruption (and male chauvinist piggery) at the highest levels. It doesn't even stand alone when you just limit such scandals to Democrats. Two examples spring immediately to mind: former Senator Bob "Gold Bars" Menendez of New Jersey, who was recently found guilty on 16 counts of corruption and bribery (who will be sentenced one week before Election Day); and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who served an eight-year prison sentence for his own rank corruption and was only released (he still had six more years to serve) when then-President Donald Trump commuted his sentence. It's not like New York has a monopoly on this sort of scandal, in other words.

But it does seem to stand out in the annals of political corruption. Which is why I am going to end this column with a plug for donations to one of my favorite worthy causes: the Museum of Political Corruption. This is the brainchild of Professor Bruce Roter, who has been tirelessly working to build an actual brick-and-mortar museum dedicated to exposing political corruption both past and present in Albany, New York. The museum now exists online in virtual form and is supported by an impressive list of people, so if you'd like to contribute to the worthy cause of memorializing corruption in New York (and beyond), I would direct you to their site.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant